The Republic of the Maldives is the smallest country in Asia, both by
landmass and population.
It is also the country with the lowest
elevation on Earth, rising to only 1.5 meters above sea level. Due to
climate change, the Maldive Islands are under threat of rising sea
levels.
In 2012 President Mohamed Nasheed called his country the 3rd
most at risk from flooding due to climate change, even stating that, “If
carbon emissions continue at the rate they are climbing today, my
country will be underwater in seven years.”

While President Nasheed’s predictions may sound extreme, there are
legitimate concerns about the future of the Maldives.
In 2007, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted
that most of the 200-some islands that make up the Maldives will need
to be abandoned by 2100.
It seems like it may be too late to
slow climate change in time for the survival of this tourist paradise
and there are plans to buy up land in other Asian-Pacific countries for
future climate refugees from the Maldives.

Praised as a pristine eco-destination and a nation that is abandoning
fossil fuels (as well as a symbol for what the world is losing through
burning them) the Maldives stands on figurative high ground if not
literally so.
It is also a diver’s paradise where one can spot the
illusive and rare whale shark.

Because the island sits only one meter above sea level, environmentalists worry that toxic waste could leach into the water.

Yet there is a dirty secret that has helped to keep most of the
Maldives clean, pristine and litter free.
It is Thilafushi, a manmade
island of rubbish — a landfill in paradise, overflowing with floating
plastic waste.
It is estimated that around 330 tons of garbage are
brought to Thilafushi daily — so much that the island is physically
expanding by about one square meter with each new day.
The hazardous
waste that is mixed in with the regular rubbish in the landfill has lead
to Thilafushi being described by local environmentalists as a “toxic bomb“.

Thilafushi lagoon fill, with used batteries,
asbestos, lead and other potentially hazardous waste mixed with the
municipal solid wastes, is an increasingly serious ecological and health
problem in the Maldives. Even though batteries and e-waste are quite a
small fraction of municipal waste disposed at the Thilafushi, they are a
concerted source of toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead and
cadmium. Chemicals can leach out into water table or sea and endanger
the surrounding sea and reefs.
—Maldives environmental activist group Bluepeace

Thilafushi aerial view

Links :

: Filmmaker Alison Teal has made a documentary about her time in the
Maldives, including footage of her riding her surfboard through piles of
floating plastic garbage.

Check out some remarkable photos of Alison’s
trip to the garbage island here.

The Faroe Islands, in the harsh North Atlantic, are part of the Kingdom of Denmark.The diverse community of around 50,000 has traditions dating back centuries and a remarkably low crime rate.Yet the Faroese are often called the last barbarians of Europe.Recent pictures of their slaughter of pilot whales went viral on the internet and in the media. Marine mammals killed and hacked into pieces while children play in the blood-red waters were shocking to many.Unmoved, the Faroese are determined to continue their tradition and devise new weapons for killing the ‘grinds’, insisting that it's no different to killing any other animal for food.

The waters on the shores of Denmark’s Faroe Islands turn red in summer.
The islanders are keen on preserving a centuries-old bloody practice of whale hunting, which turns small bays in slaughterhouses despite the efforts of activists to stop them.
“This is an old tradition, and as you know, there’s some conflict in this, because there are people from outside, from the mainland who don’t like what we’re doing here,” local journalist Finnur Koba told RT.

Faroe islands ENCs with the Marine GeoGarage

The Faroe Islands are an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, about halfway between Norway and Iceland where the Norwegian Sea meets the North Atlantic.
For their northerly latitude their climate is relatively mild and barely changes between summer and winter, with a mean summer temperature of 13 degrees Celsius and a winter average of 3 degrees.

Last month six protesters from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society were found guilty by a Faroe Islands’ court of interfering with the grind, or whale drive hunts.
Sea Shepherd was founded by Paul Watson in the 1980s with the aim of halting the practice of killing whales and uses confrontational tactics such as ramming whaling ships.
During a whale grind a flotilla of small power boats drive the whales or dolphins into a shallow bay where they are slaughtered with knives, in a process which is part of a 1,000 year old tradition.

Although Denmark is an anti-whaling member of the EU and is subject to laws prohibiting the slaughter of cetaceans – marine mammals including whales, dolphins and porpoises – it defends the right of the islanders to practice the grind.
Once the whales are in shallow water, people on the shore cut the whales’ neck and try and break the spinal cord and although there is a lot of blood, death occurs quickly.

Whale hunting has been a common phenomenon for a long time.

It is known to have existed on Iceland, in the Hebrides, and in Shetland and Orkney.Archaeological evidence from the early Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands c. 1200 years ago, in the form of pilot whale bones found in household remains in Gøta, indicates that the pilot whale has long had a central place in the everyday life of Faroe Islanders.

The meat and blubber of the pilot whale have been an important part of the islanders' staple diet.

The blubber, in particular, has been highly valued both as food and for processing into oil, which was used for lighting fuel and other purposes.

Parts of the skin of pilot whales were also used for ropes and lines, while stomachs were used as floats.Rights have been regulated by law since medieval times and references are found in early Norwegian legal documents, while the oldest existing legal document with specific reference to the Faroes, the so-called Sheep Letter from 1298, includes rules for rights to, and shares of, both stranded whales as well as whales driven ashore.Records of drive hunts in the Faroe Islands date back to 1584.

Although whale hunting was carried out in other European communities, they have either stopped completely or changed their techniques to cut down on the amount of blood shed.
In the Faroes, the islanders still feel a real cultural attachment to the practice and point out that the hunt is primarily for food.
Whale meat can be boiled, broiled as a steak or air dried and can even be eaten raw in thin slices.
But not everyone in the Faroes is happy with the practice.

A Faroe islander, Ingi Sørensen, who also is an underwater whale photographer believes the practice belongs in the history books.
“It belongs to the past. In those days it gave us life. Without the grind there would be no life here. But today it’s absolutely unnecessary,” he said.

Faroe Islanders watch as men inspect whale carcasses taken during a grind in 1947.

photo : Raymond Kleboe, Getty Images

Pitting tradition against modern values is something most Faroe islanders are happy to do, Finnur Koba explained.
“The tradition is very difficult to explain. It’s something that lives deep inside you, its culture you know. It’s what defines who you are,” he said.

However, the long-term yearly average catch of whales is about 800, not enough to dent the large population of pilot whales in the northeast Atlantic, or big enough to make any real difference to the local economy.
There are no professional whale hunters any more on the Faroe Islands and no one relies on it for their living.
All whalers have a day job and when the call to the grind goes out on mobile phones, local radio and social media, everyone tries to get the beach in time for the hunt.

One islander explained to the RT crew that he took his daughter to a grind to show her how whales are killed and then cut up for meat.
He said he wanted her to understand where food comes from.
His daughter was not apparently particularly fazed either way about what she witnessed.

The islanders are adamant that they kill the whales as humanely as possible and they point out that they only hunt pilot whales not the bigger killer whales, which in some areas of the world are a protected species.

If there is anything likely to put a stop to the practice, it’s not protests by animal rights activists but health concerns as increasing amounts of heavy metal toxins are being found in whale meat.
Some Faroe islanders, including the head physician of the islands Dr Pál Weihe, are not enthusiastic about eating it.

In 2008 Weihe, alongside the Chief Medical Officer of the islands, advised against human consumption of pilot whale.
“The amount of toxins found in pilot whales has not decreased, and we still don´t know much about the long-term damage caused by biological toxins. This is why we warn that pilot whale is not fit for human consumption,” Weihe told a Faroese magazine in September 2013.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Damage assessments from environmental hazards are always a challenge
because of the competing constituencies pulling on science and the fuzzy
nature of estimates.
After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf
of Mexico, the Obama administration was editing science reports to
reflect its goals, environmentalists were raising money claiming earth
was ruined and using wild guesses for damage, and BP lobbyists were
mitigating penalties behind the scenes by claiming it wasn't so bad.

What about possibly 2 million barrels of oil that are still down there?
Are they a hazard?
Where did they go?

Map
of study sampling sites identified as small circles with hotter colors
indicating higher levels of contamination. - See more at:
http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/014454/where-did-all-oil-go#sthash.wJZW7YHs.dpuf

By analyzing data from more than 3,000 samples collected at 534
locations over 12 expeditions, they identified a 1,250-square-mile patch
of the deep sea floor upon which 2 to 16 percent of the discharged oil
was deposited.
The fallout of oil to the sea floor created thin deposits
most intensive to the southwest of the Macondo well.
The oil was most
concentrated within the top half inch of the sea floor and was patchy
even at the scale of a few feet.

Researchers recently set out to describe a path the oil could have followed, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They collated data from other agencies, the Natural Resource Damage
Assessment process conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
The Obama administration estimated the Macondo well's
total discharge — from the spill in April 2010 until the well was capped
that July — to be 5 million barrels.

The investigation focused primarily on hopane, a nonreactive hydrocarbon
that served as a proxy for the discharged oil.
Researchers analyzed the
spatial distribution of hopane in the northern Gulf of Mexico and found
it was most concentrated in a thin layer at the sea floor within 25
miles of the ruptured well, clearly implicating Deepwater Horizon as the
source.

A simulation of the patchy distribution of oil

resulting from deposition of oil-bearing particles over 100 square feet of ocean floor.

"Based on the evidence, our
findings suggest that these deposits come from Macondo oil that was
first suspended in the deep ocean and then settled to the sea floor
without ever reaching the ocean surface," said co-author David
Valentine, a professor of earth science and biology at UC Santa Barbara.
"The pattern is like a shadow of the tiny oil droplets that were
initially trapped at ocean depths around 3,500 feet and pushed around by
the deep currents. Some combination of chemistry, biology and physics
ultimately caused those droplets to rain down another 1,000 feet to rest
on the sea floor."

The team were able to identify hotspots of oil fallout in close
proximity to damaged deep-sea corals.
According to the researchers, this
data supports the previously disputed finding that these corals were
damaged by the Deepwater Horizon spill.
"The evidence is becoming clear that oily particles were raining down
around these deep sea corals, which provides a compelling explanation
for the injury they suffered,"
said Valentine.
"The pattern of contamination we observe is fully
consistent with the Deepwater Horizon event but not with natural seeps —
the suggested alternative."
While the study examined a specified area, the scientists argue that the observed oil represents
a minimum value.
They purport that oil deposition likely occurred
outside the study area but so far has largely evaded detection because
of its patchiness.

This analysis provides us with, for the first time, some closure on
the question 'Where did the oil go and how?' " said Don Rice, program
director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean
Sciences.
"It also alerts us that this knowledge remains largely
provisional until we can fully account for the remaining 70 percent."
"These findings should be useful for assessing the damage caused by
the Deepwater Horizon spill as well as planning future studies to
further define the extent and nature of the contamination," Valentine
concluded.
"Our work can also help to assess the fate of reactive
hydrocarbons, test models of oil's behavior in the ocean and plan for
future spills."

For the first time in almost 60 years the exact measurements of the country's territorial waters, including part of the disputed Rockall Bank, are being taken from 50 specially selected points.

Rockall

Operation Baseline will help chart more accurate maritime maps and be used to cement claims to the continental shelf up to 350 miles from shore.
Over the last few weeks the Air Corps winched geographers on to some of the most inaccessible headlands and islands on our shores to mark co-ordinates first given to the United Nations in 1959.

A Department of Foreign Affairs official said the new measurements will accurately record Ireland's shores and seas down to centimeters .
"The new coordinates will be used to update electronic maritime charts and the project will also allow the outer limits of the State's maritime zones to be determined with much greater accuracy," she said.
"More accurate mapping is important for a range of matters including exploration, licensing and law enforcement."

As part of the operation, an Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) team used GPS to pinpoint the 50 locations and permanently marked them with brass plates.

Scart Rock Skarv is the Norwegian word for cormorant.

Scarf and Scart are common place names and refer to rocks and skerries popular with cormorants. The rocks lie just off the entrance to Dunbar Harbour.

Andy McGill, Operation Baseline co-ordinator with the OSi, said the job could not have been done without Air Corps pilots and winchmen and the Navy on standby.
"Basically it is redefining the territorial limits," he said.
"But it was extremely exhilarating. We had guys out there for 10-12 hours and it would take another six hours for them to calm down once they were back in - the adrenaline really gets going. You are working in an extremely hazardous environment.
"We didn't expect to get access to all the points but the guys in the Air Corps and Navy made it so easy."

Ireland has a 12 mile territorial sea, a 200 mile exclusive economic zone before any additional claims are made to the continental shelf including the Rockall Bank.
The Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) says potential territorial waters stretch to 898,442km sq - an area bigger than the oil rich North Sea.

But claims to Rockall - the pudding shaped remnants of an extinct volcano in North Atlantic and the inspiration for a rebel song - are virtually pointless under international law.
Ireland has never attempted to seize the rock but it has made claims for some of the potentially oil rich sea bed around it up to 500 nautical miles from shore and known as Hatton-Rockall.
The claim has been agreed with the UK but is rejected by the Faroe Islands.

Ireland has successfully claimed an extra 39,000 km sq of seabed off the west coast beside the Porcupine Bank and a second claim for a swathe of the Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay is being negotiated with France, Spain and the UK.
Another 15 points will be marked as part of Operation Baseline in separate weather dependent missions over the next few weeks.

Monday, October 27, 2014

As our public viewer is not yet available(currently under construction, upgrading to Google Maps API v3 as v2 is officially no more supported),this info is primarily intended to our iPhone/iPad universal mobile application users(Marine US on the App Store)and also to our B2B customers which use our nautical charts layers in their own webmapping applications through our GeoGarage API.

While information provided by this Web site is intended to provide updated nautical charts, it must not be used as a substitute for the United States Coast Guard, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or Canadian Coast Guard Notice to Mariner publications

In an effort to make more attractive and diverse its tourism product,
Cuba is committed to develop nautical activities, a modality with great
potential but little exploited to date.

Tourism authorities told ACN their considerations on the
opportunities and challenges to promote recreational activities in Cuban
marinas and nautical areas.

Varadero

According to Alexander Sierra, Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR by its
Spanish acronym) Development CEO, in the plan designed by 2030 in order
to boost an industry that seeks to be reinstated as engine of the
economy, the above modality is one of the main priorities.
In this regard, he stressed they are now concentrating their actions
in knowing the situation in this scenario, in order to execute
investment to improve conditions and services in marinas, nautical
centers, piers, moorings, harbors, shipyards, dry marinas and fishing
and diving zones.
Process that must be well articulated with other policies and plans
implemented by the Caribbean nation, as the Law of Ports and the one of
Fishing, the shipyard recovery program, or the promotion of tourist
cruise operations, among other strategies, Sierra told.

In line with these projections, in October 2013 the Council of
Ministers approved the Decree 314, which instituted a legal framework to
regulate, control and develop the operation of touristic marinas on the
island, in order to strengthen the competitiveness of these enclaves in
the Caribbean.
According to Domingo Cisneros, acting chairman of Marlin S.A. Nautica
and Marinas Business Group, through the process of reordering the
country will propose more attractive products to international tourists
market, generally of high standard, which could generate substantial
revenues to the nation.

Diving places Cuba

That is why they are promoting sport fishing, diving, kitesurfing,
sea kayak and yachting, activities plenty of potential to grab the
attention of lovers of such recreational disciplines in the world .
Naval technical conditions are also being improved in order to
develop boat- adventure (speed-boat rides through Canarreos
archipelago), mainly at the poles of Varadero and Cayo Coco, Cisneros
said.
But beyond the intentions, resources are also essential; topic on
which Jose R. Daniel, MINTUR Business Director, said that currently
foreign partners to supply equipment and breakthrough technologies,
needed for the conformation of more complete products, are sought.
Moreover, within the opportunities portfolio offered by the sector to
foreign investors, management contracts of marinas and nautical centers
are promoted among reputable companies to help raising quality
standards, the official added.

From a business view, José M. Bisbé, president of Havanatur
International Group of Tour Operators and Travel Agents, considered that
Cuba treasures gorgeous seabed with coral reefs as few in the region
due to their state of preservation and diversity of species that inhabit
in these ecosystems.
It also has a wide network of marinas throughout the archipelago, to
which the ambitious project Gaviota Varadero Marina recently joined,
with capacity for over a thousand berths.

This shows that we are strongly work ing to provide activities such
as diving and yachting, which may be the spearhead of ¨Autentica Cuba¨
promotional campaign in the world, Bisbé noted.
MINTUR´s actions gain strength, especially in view of the upcoming
International Tourism Fair, which 35th edition will be devoted precisely
to the nautical modality and for which Jardines del Rey (north of
Camagüey), one of the main poles on which the activity is potentiated,
was chosen to host it.

Archipelago de los Jardines de la Reinas with the Marine GeoGarage

According to official data, there are in Cuba 39 international diving
centers, 11 nautical bases and 12 marinas, nine of which operate with
foreign boats; facilities mostly run by Marlin SA and Gaviota groups.
The main destinations where visitors can access those services
include Jardines de la Reina (south of Camagüey), a place of unique
beauty and well positioned in the international market with high
purchasing clients that repeat every year.
Focused on receiving this year, for the first time, three million
visitors, Cuba is opened to new projects, such as those related to the
creation of golf courses, eco-tourism and circuits, in order to position
in the international market a destination that has much more to offer
than the one of sun and beach.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Thomaz Monteiro and Flavia Passaglia from Brazil were diving at Bat Islands, Costa Rica, when this peaceful manta came.
Brian Thompson (from Canada) gently cut the net fishing and now the manta can live with no pain. Important: We picked up the line.
It's our trophy now! Brian, the diver who cut the line, gave a little piece for all divers there!.

Dolphins may be one of the planet's smartest creatures, but one thing they lack are opposable thumbs. However, they are clever enough to recognize that, in a pinch, they can approach humans to get help with those hard to reach spots.